Tuesday, March 13, 2012

They just can't say, no: County Commissioners fiddling with the Urban Development Boundary policy ... by gimleteye


This Wednesday at 2 pm, a committee of the county commission will take up a proposal by County Commissioner Pepe Diaz to "tinker" with the Urban Development Boundary policy. Diaz proposes to form an advisory committee in such a way as to favor industry, of course. That is also par for the course. (Please use our search button feature, for past posts on Pepe Diaz.)

Conservation groups, bouncing from one crisis to another in recent years, can scarcely afford the trouble. Nor would it be worth it. The instructive example is the multi-year South Miami-Dade Watershed Study completed in 2010; a supposedly consensus- based group whose work entailed thousands of hours of contribution with volunteers (a minority) from conservation groups pitted against a majority that was funded and paid for by builder and trade associations. After all was said and done, after all the "consensus building", sturm und drang, after years of effort, the county commission simply put the recommendations on a shelf and washed their hands of it. Government-designed-to-fail: you bet'cha. (Do watch the HBO film, "Game Change" on Sarah Palin. How someone so unqualified could have been promoted one step from the presidency of the United States is another feather in the cap of government-designed-to-fail.)

It is curious how the economic crisis triggered by the housing bust has created an even better political climate for wrecking environmental protections than during the boom. Elected leaders at every level of government have simply collapsed into the cesspit logic that environmental regulations harms jobs. Before the crash, it was a different kind of logic (that fueled the political fortunes of wash-outs like former Miami Dade mayor Alex Penelas): we have to increase the tax base to fund what citizens want. Never mind that infrastructure deficits in Miami-Dade now total nearly $10 billion. Oh, and let's not forget: "it is what the market wants". Now, of course, it's "jobs".

Let's not leave Governor Rick Scott off the rogue's list. Scott, who knew nothing of state land use policies when he came into office, set local county commissioners into backfield motion when he shut down the last remnants of the state land use planning authority vested in the Florida Department of Community Affairs. Indeed, ever since Scott's blind hike across the political landscape, Miami-Dade development interests have been testing the boundaries.

Using the Urban Development Boundary as a scapegoat for the jobs issue is a red herring. What is really at stake is an effort to extract value for speculators who gambled on the price of real estate outside the boundary when the market was flying. Some day, the FDIC will crack down on the banks that are holding their mortgages at vastly inflated values. As usual, the speculators want taxpayers to foot the bill. Based on past precedent, they have every reason to believe if they can hold out long enough, they will. This is the real backdrop for the "initiative" by Pepe Diaz to change UDB policies. It is the same "initiative" as the one to extend SR 826 into South Dade farmland, adjacent to mega-churches and mega-frauds.

They want to know how far they can go in this brave, new world where nothing means anything. At the local level, where contributions from speculators outside the Urban Development Boundary often account for large percentages of county commission political campaigns, there is no limit.

It is not hard to imagine that the housing bust severely diminished the squadron of land use lobbyists, "environmental" lawyers, and industry engineers who troll county and city halls across the state of Florida. In downtown Miami, they need something to do to claw their incomes back-- even if there is no demand for platted subdivisions in wetlands. I am guessing that changing UDB policy serves their clients waiting for the miracle to come -- whether Lennar, the production homebuilder, or Cemex, the foreign-owned cement maker scraping up the Everglades for limestone or big tomato growers like DiMare count on land being worth its development value as platted subdivisions or land aggregators. The county commission's meddling is like a teasing a bull with a spear. Ole!

If the history were written, it would show that attacks on environmental regulations have been building from the moment that that national environmental laws were created in the 1970's through bipartisan support. That bipartisan support is a distant memory. What is going on now, under the disguise of "improvement" and rationalizing wholesale changes to the UDB, is another front of the 40 Year War on the Environment.

The Urban Development Boundary has proven, for environmental and conservation and neighborhood groups, a line worth holding. It has been an obstacle-- albeit impermanent-- to the rampant growth that pushed platted subdivisions and strip malls in Broward County right to the edge of the Everglades. Pepe Diaz is dreaming if he thinks that today's agreement would not be supplanted by tomorrow's, by another group at another time, to move the UDB. But Pepe is not dreaming, any more than the rest of the unreformable majority.

They just can't say, no.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

After reading the resolution proposed by Diaz, it looks like a quick, balanced committee is being formed to evaluate whether or not the County should continue to accept private applications to amend the UDB every two years.

Who could possibly support the continuation of the current asinine process of holding contentious hearings every two years to test the boundary?

Occasionally there is an opportunity to reform a process through civic involvement. Rather than waxing paranoid on Diaz and his intentions (speculating on "job creation" and other issues not mentioned anywhere in the resolution), we should take the opportunity to fix this f***ed up process.

"Stay informed, get involved" as Putney likes to say.

Geniusofdespair said...

you don't know how to read reader above here is the make-up of Pepe's Committee...

9 members

Environmental & Land Use Law Center
Tropical Audubon
Urban Environment League

that is 3 from the environmental side.

The other side has 5:

Latin Builders
South Florida Builders Association
Associated Builders and Contractors
Miami Chamber
Beacon Council

Mayor Designee

Geniusofdespair said...

What do you take us for? Fools?

Show me a group with 8 members ....

4 and 4 and then maybe I will talk.

millyherrera_hialeah said...

Someone with a good and solid moral upbringing, and some power over the rulers of the land, ought to investigate. There is no need to move the UDBLine when so much all over Miami-Dade sits dormant, up for sale or lease. Industrial, commercial and residential. What happened to downtown condos? Renovation on industrial parks in Hialeah? The annexed area in Hialeah that moved the UDBLine has resulted in a waste of millions of dollars that has not helped any of us.

Hold the Line!

Anonymous said...

The resolution is subject to amendments. Contact Diaz or the other members of the committee before Wednesday and ask for other groups to be included...

Maybe the Sierra Club, Katy Sorenson's Good Government group, and the Redlands' Citizens Association (if it is not defunct) should be there? Who else?

Geniusofdespair said...

And then they will add on as many groups. Didn't the watershed group have 30 or 40 members?

Anonymous said...

To the anon: The Redland Citizen Assn. is alive and well! We have our spot on the Ag Practices Board, and should have some say on the UDB Board since Redland had a bullseye on it during the development boom. A few of our members will be happy to speak with Mayor Gimenez on the issue and a few of the BCC. We would also be happy to hold a forum down here on the issue if there is enough public interest.

And, to those who don't really follow a lot of legislation, there have been numerous CDMP changes over the past years, which are opening up areas outside the UDB to what some would consider urban uses. Not to mention the surplus issue of available land inside the UDB ripe for redevelopment, which is being ignored.

Pamela Gray
President
Redland Citizens Association

Anonymous said...

Urban Infill! Pepe Diaz and the other 12 commissioners and the Mayor should be forced to take a course on urban infill and on all the reasons to promote developing the urban core. Tens of thousands of vacant lots are waiting for development within 10 miles of County Hall. Gas prices are supposedly heading to $5 per gallon. Stop creating 60 minute commutes. Encourage public transportation. Force (encourage) developers to build on lots near transit stops.
Do urban infill. Protect South Florida's water supply.

Anonymous said...

Okey, this is for you Pepe:

Good Jobs are created on Industrial Zoned Properties through-out all of Hialeah and my gosh, look in former Darren Roll's district--N,W.32 Ave to MiamiAve --north from N.W. 36 St to NW. 79 St & further. There is no need to move any mention of a UDB line with so much vacant IU land and shoddy dilapidated buildings till 2025. Commissioner Diaz-- You don't need popularity or $$$'s --you've got your Key Largo Hide-away.

Anon

Anonymous said...

I have made a very comfortable living in redevelopment and provided nice, affordable homes to our community doing it (without tax payer funds of any kind). It's a win win for everyone, but it takes a little vision and more time than paving over farm land!

We don't have a huge brain trust on the BCC, some are, the URM certainly are not Mensa members, however, their ego's & campaign coffers make up for their "short sightedness" in their own mind!

Anonymous said...

So, my takeaway here is that they have learned nothing. Well great. Let's study what we already know we shouldn't be doing. Maybe commissioners have to hide behind the recommendations? What ever...

Hold the line.

Anonymous said...

Audrey Edmunson has vacant lots all over her urban district. Why hasn't someone given her a course on the benefits of urban infill? She keeps voting to expand the UDB and to pave the Everglades. Dunce.